“This thing is about 5 feet across, waist high and we can send something like that that is a robot that is smart enough to do these things on its own and make decision on it’s own,” Buzasi said.

It is NASA’s eighth successful Mars landing since the 1976 Vikings. The thee-legged, one-armed InSight will operate from the same spot for the next two years. It landed less than 400 miles (600 kilometers) from NASA’s Curiosity rover, which until Monday was the youngest working robot in town.